“How’d you wreck your car?”
“A damn possum ran out in front of me.” Terry sighed. “I should’ve just hit it instead of swerve.”
“I’m gonna beat my brother for this if that makes ya feel better.”
“Not really.” Terry’s shoulders slumped. “Sometimes, Jules, I really hate being me.”
“Oh, don’t say that,” Jules said quickly. “You’re a good person, one of the best we got in this town. Shoot, ya gave Melody money and a place to stay when she had nothing. You organize the food bank charities every Thanksgiving and Christmas. You give the school money in the spring to start their garden and—”
“What’d you think the school and everyone else would think if they knew what I really was?”
“You make it sound like you’re a vampire or something,” Jules said with a frown.
“There ain’t nothing wrong with you, Terry.”
“Yeah, well, you tell that to most of this town,” Terry said with a bark of laughter.
“I get mad at him for wanting to keep it secret, but ya know, he’s right. It’d ruin both of us if it got out.”
“I know and I still love ya,” Jules argued. “Wyatt knows, and it ain’t a big deal to him.”
“Wyatt just arrested me,” Terry reminded her.
“Not for being gay.”
“Maybe I should just leave. Get out and start over. Move to the city.”
“You can’t do that!” Jules said in horror. “I’d miss ya. We’d all miss ya.”
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“I’m gonna die one day, and no one’s gonna know I spent most of my life loving someone,” Terry said miserably. “They’re gonna think I wasted all my days. Do you know how that makes me feel?”
“I do, actually,” Jules whispered, feeling tears stinging her eyes. “The only difference between you and me is you got someone to actually love. Even if it’s in secret, at least you still got it, and if you don’t start appreciating it, I’m gonna beat you instead of Wyatt.”
A soft chuckle escaped Terry despite the dire situation. “You're beautiful, Jules, and a good person besides. You’ll find someone to love. I promise.”
“I dunno.” Jules huffed, feeling her cell phone in her pocket like a lead weight.
“Love’s kinda complicated. Maybe I’d be better off without it.”
“Maybe,” Terry said, giving her a sidelong look. “It sure ain’t easy, I’ll tell ya that.”
Jules stretched out her hand to him, and Terry slid over on the bench until he could reach her. He squeezed her palm in his and then bent down, pressing his forehead against their intertwined fingers. He looked sad and beaten by life, which was all wrong for Terry.
She turned her head, rested her cheek against the bars, and looked down the hallway. Wyatt was leaning against the wall, his arms crossed over his broad chest as he considered them.
“I need to head out.” Wyatt sighed.
“Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.”
“You got the dispatch?”
“Don’t I always?” Jules asked with a glare. “I’ll be there in a second.”
“Fine.” Wyatt pushed away from the wall. “Make Terry disappear before one of the deputies sees him. File’s on my desk. I didn’t put it into the computer yet.” Jules gave him a beaming smile. “Really?”
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Wyatt turned around to leave rather than respond, and Jules untangled her hand from Terry’s to run after him. She jumped up and tackled him before he could get to his office. He stumbled from the force of her enthusiasm and then straightened with Jules wrapped around his back, her heavy black boots digging into his stomach and her arms tight around his neck.
“I love you, Wy Wy.” Jules kissed his cheek. “Thank you!”
“Yeah, you love me when you’re getting your way,” Wyatt said, sounding unmoved.
“I love you always,” she argued, kissing him again and ruffling his hair. “You’re not a pig. You just play one for the masses.”
“Okay,” Wyatt said drily. “Dontcha got some phone calls to make?” She tightened her arms around his neck once more. “Say you love me too.”
“I love you too.” Wyatt walked back to his office with Jules still wrapped around him as if he didn’t have time to wait for her to stop playing. “Now get the fuck off me.” Jules leaped off. She landed on her feet and then held out her hand expectantly.
Wyatt put Terry’s file in it, giving her a stern look. “He needs to be gone before anyone gets back here, and with the night we’re having—”
“He’ll be gone,” Jules assured him.
“His car’s eastbound on Kirkman Road before Westridge Lane. I called Kyle to tow it, but he’s busy tonight too. Someone could probably meet him there before he impounds it.” Wyatt put his jacket on and was working the zipper just as the phone started ringing. “Dispatch.”
Jules turned and rushed out of his office. She grabbed the phone and slid into the chair at the same time. She turned to the paper shredder as she said, “911, what’s your emergency?”
“Jules! Terry’s car’s wrecked on Kirkman. We got into a fight, and he left. When he didn’t answer his phone, I went after him, but—”
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“Hal, calm down,” Jules interrupted the panicked rambling. “We got him. He’s here at the station. I was just gonna call ya.”
“Is he okay? Is he hurt?”
“He’s fine. A little shaken, a little drunk, but fine,” Jules assured him. “You have to come get him, though.”
“I’m on my way.”
He hung up without a good-bye, which was okay. Jules knew Hal was still trying to get his bearings and recover from the shock. She started to feed the police report into the shredder, deciding to do that before she let Terry out because it was the more incriminating evidence. Wyatt locked people up to cool down without charging them all the time.
The phone rang once more, and she answered as she shredded the last of Terry’s DUI evidence. “911, what’s your emergency?”
“He ain’t there ’cause he’s in trouble, is he?” Hal asked, a new kind of concern sounding in his voice. “Am I coming to bail him out?” Jules tossed the empty folder on the desk. “No, you ain’t got to bail him out, but he’s had a real bad night. I suggest you forget about whatever fight you had before you get here.”
“Shoot, I just found his empty car married to a tree. I done forgot about that fight
’bout three minutes ago,” Hal said, his voice choked with a rare show of emotion. “Are you sure he’s okay?”
“He seems fine. He must’ve had someone looking out for him.”
“Must have,” Hal agreed, breathing a sigh of relief. “Thanks, Jules.”
“Sure,” she said, looking toward the back, thinking of Terry still in lockup. “I have to go, Hal. Busy night.”
“See ya soon.” Hal hung up a second time without a good-bye.
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Jules rushed back to the lockup, wanting to get Terry out before Hal got there, but Wyatt beat her to it. With his hat in hand and his jacket zipped up tight against the cold, her brother stood at the open door to the cell shaking Terry’s hand.
“I’m gonna make this up to you,” Terry promised him. “I swear, Sheriff, I’ll pay you back somehow.”
“Just don’t drink and drive anymore.” Wyatt patted his back, pushing Terry lightly toward Jules. “That’s how you can pay me back. I don’t like calling the coroner, Terry. I’ve had to do it too many times in my life, and I sure don’t wanna do it for you.” Knowing this speech and hating it, Jules reached out and caught ahold of Terry’s hand before he could respond, and pulled him down the hallway to the front desk. She forced him into her seat and asked, “Want some coffee?” Terry shrugged. “If it ain’t too much trouble.”
“Cream and sugar?”
“Black’s fine.”
“I’m leaving.” Wyatt poked Jules in the ribs as she walked up to the coffeemaker.
“Stop screening calls and telling people I’m in a mood.”
“Sure thing, Sheriff.” She gave him a smile. “Be careful.”
“Always am.” Wyatt put his hat back on and brushed at his jacket. “Tell Hal I want free breakfast for the next month.”
Jules laughed. “I ain’t telling him that.”
Jules poured Terry a cup of coffee once Wyatt left, and then made one for herself.
She rolled one of the chairs from the deputies’ desks up next to Terry and sat beside him.
“I sort of got a fella I’m interested in,” Jules said because she needed to tell someone, and Terry was as good a person as any. She smiled against the rim of her coffee cup as she brought her legs up and rested her knees against the dispatch board.
“But he’s the wrong kinda fella.”
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Terry turned and looked at her curiously. “How so?”
“He’s a real bad boy.” Jules felt her cheeks heat, thinking of just how bad Romeo could be. “Not someone you’d wanna bring to your mama on Wednesdays or church on Sundays.”
“Well, seeing as you ain’t got a mama,” Terry started, giving her a sly smile, “and I ain’t never seen your car in the church parking lot on Sunday, that don’t sound like too much of a problem. Good-looking?”
“God.” Jules sighed longingly. “You don’t even know. That man’s hotter than Georgia asphalt in July.”
“Sounds like the right kinda fella to me.”
Jules laughed, shaking her head. “I am in trouble, Terry. You shouldn’t even be encouraging me. This whole thing is a drama waiting to happen.”
“You only got one life to live. Might as well live it,” Terry said as the front door opened, letting in a blast of cold air. He looked up at the big hulk of a man who walked in and then lowered his voice, whispering to Jules, “But who the hell am I to talk.”
“Hey, Jules,” Hal said, his gaze on Terry despite the fact that he was talking to Jules. “I, um, only saw your car in the parking lot.”
“That’s ’cause I’m the only one here.” Jules took another sip of her coffee. “It’s been a wild night.”
Hal walked around the counter and reached down, grabbing Terry’s arm and forcing him to stand. Terry stood, but his head was still tilted away, making it obvious he was pissed off. Hal obviously didn’t care, because he hugged Terry, wrapping his big, thick arms around the smaller man until he grunted in complaint.
“I thought you were dead somewhere,” Hal whispered, his voice anguished enough that Jules suspected he might be crying.
“Yeah, well, you ain’t that lucky,” Terry said bitterly, though he didn’t fight Hal’s hold on him.
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“Don’t scare me like that again.” Hal rested his cheek against the top of Terry’s head and took a shuddering breath. “My heart can’t take it.”
“I’m fine.” Terry finally returned the hug, wrapping his arms around Hal and patting his back. “But you got to ease up a bit.”
“Are ya hurting?” Hal pulled back in concern and looked at Terry. He touched a small nick above Terry’s left eyebrow and then frowned. “You need to go see the doc first thing in the morning. We’ll call him at home if he’s off for the holiday.”
“We ain’t calling him at home,” Terry said dismissively. “I just need a few headache pills and twelve hours to sleep off my troubles.”
“Boy, you are lucky you didn’t get arrested,” Hal said in a hushed whisper Jules could barely hear. “Sheriff’s been trigger-happy with that Breathalyzer since that Johnson kid got himself killed, and you certainly had one too many if your steering led you into that oak.”
“You ain’t kidding,” Terry agreed with a bitter laugh. “But it was a possum, not my steering that led me into that tree. I swerved to miss it and skidded on the ice.”
“What the hell kinda sense have you got?” Hal gave Terry a look of horrified disbelief. “When it comes down to a choice between you and a possum…that possum better die next time.”
The dispatch rang, and Terry said, “Come on, let’s get out of Jules’s hair.”
“Thanks again, Jules,” Hal said, draping an arm over Terry’s shoulders.
Jules reached over and answered the dispatch when they turned to walk out of the door, and she kept answering it for the next hour because the damn thing didn’t want to stop ringing. The night didn’t settle down until the clock ticked close to midnight.
Then everything fell silent as if all of Garnet had stopped causing trouble long enough to watch the countdown to the New Year. With the eye of the storm over them, she finally picked up her cell phone and responded to Romeo’s earlier text.
Wish I was with you too. Feels like bad luck not having someone to kiss.
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Jules turned to watch the clock hanging on the wall above Wyatt’s office door, waiting for the New Year along with everyone else. The second hand rolled past midnight, and her cell phone buzzed in her hand. Jules nearly answered it asking what the emergency was, but stopped short and simply said, “Hello?”
“Happy New Year, Juliet.”
Jules smiled and closed her eyes, savoring Romeo’s voice on the other end.
“Happy New Year.”
“What if I promise to make up for lost time once I get there?” Romeo spoke loudly over the buzz of excitement in the background. “Will that cancel out the bad luck?”
“I dunno.” Jules put her feet up on the desk and leaned back in her chair. “I don’t think rain checks count.”
“Then how ’bout you call me when you get done doing what you’re doing,” Romeo suggested, his voice muffled by the partying around him. “And we’ll think of something wet and intimate to do that’ll let you start the New Year off on the right foot.”
Romeo probably
was
bad luck, but Jules couldn’t stop herself from agreeing.
“Sounds good to me, but I don’t get off until three.”
“I’ll be waiting,” Romeo assured her. “I didn’t kiss anyone either, and I got my own bad luck to do away with.”
The noise behind Romeo was deafening. She was sure there were plenty of women Romeo could find to kiss at that party he was at, but he’d called her instead and it pleased Jules far more than it should.
Bad boy or not, she was falling for Romeo Wellings—hard.
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Chapter Eight
Mid-January
“Tell Jules I said hi!”
Clay grunted and then repeated, “Mel says hi.”
“I heard.” Jules stretched out on Wyatt’s bed and put her hand behind her head.